as Reported by Heather MacIsaac
It was a great evening for the 19 Girl Guides and 3 leaders of the 1st Wyoming Guides on the Soames site at Camp Orenda, Friday, August 19th, 2016, 8:30 p.m. RASC London Centre member Heather MacIsaac was the event organizer, bringing her 90mm Celestron Go-To Maksutov telescope. She was joined by RASC London Centre Public Outreach Coordinator Dave McCarter, with his 25.4cm Dobsonian; Steve Imrie, with his Orion SkyQuest 8-inch (20.3cm) Dobsonian; and Everett Clark, with the London Centre’s 25.4cm Dobsonian.
Dave McCarter gave a great star talk before directing the girls to the 4 telescopes set up and directed towards Mars and Saturn. As clouds and lightning rolled in, Heather showed the Guides how to locate sky objects for their astronomy badge, including the Summer Triangle (the stars Vega, Deneb and Altair), Polaris and Arcturus. There were questions from the Guides and the evening ended around 10:10 p.m. after clouds had covered much of the sky.
The best part of the evening for Heather was when one of the Guides told her “I don’t really like science, but now I really like astronomy”—mission success! Many thanks go to Heather, Steve, Everett and Dave for an excellent Guides’ star night despite the uncertain weather.